"The cow really is perhaps the most useful animal there is. We think of food in the form of meat and milk and cheese and everything produced from milk. In addition to that, the cow of course gives us clothing and shoes from her leather, and over the course of history it's been expected to work, to plough the land, to grow the arable crops and of course her dung makes excellent fuel and excellent fertilizer. You've got fuel, you've got fertilizer, you've clothes, you've got food. What more could you ask?" 

 

A new member joins the extended family of one and a half billion cattle on the planet. Even before it's born, it is welcomed to the highly social herd. Despite big wide set eyes and excellent all-round vision, cattle see only 1/16 as much detail as humans. But they have an excellent sense of smell. In the wild, the calf will hide from predators. Its scent ensures its mother can find it. The bond is formed in the first few vital minutes of life as the mother licks her calf dry, stimulating its circulation and helping it to its feet. But this is no wild animal. It is a Holstein Friesian, a domestic dairy breed representing centuries of careful human selection.

 

How did this extraordinary partnership come into being and why did the lives and fortunes of cows and humans all over the world become so intertwined? The story begins 30,000 years ago. Deep within the earth, the first artists recorded the beginnings of the most important relationship between man and animal the planet has ever witnessed. Some archaeologists think cave paintings like these were created by shaman as magical invocation for a successful hunt. One of the most common images is that of Bos primigenius, the now extinct auroch, the ancestor of the modern cow. Weighing 2,000 pounds with deadly horns, the auroch was a formidable beast. But a single animal could provide the clan with more meat than they could eat as well as bones, sinew and guts for making weapons, it gave horn and hooves for tools and hide for clothes and shelter. The auroch was the Stone Age supermarket, giving our ancestors everything they needed for survival.